Aren't We a Team? A LEGO Ninjago Fanfic
by TLFScarheart12
Summary: Requested by Ninjagolover why do I get so many ninjago requests? :P oh well Cole starts to notice the other ninja making excuses not to be with him and doing things without him. What is going on?
1. Chapter 1: At Least There's Nya

Cole put his hands on his knees and focused on techniques to help him catch his breath. Another tough morning of training was over. The afternoon was the ninjas to do as they pleased.

Cole straitened when he caught his breath. The others were already heading inside for lunch. Kai had made Kenchinjiru, a vegetarian soup.

"I'm thinking about taking my dragon out for some exercise," Cole told his friends, "Anyone want to come?"

The other three looks at one another hesitantly.

"Uh...sorry Cole," Kai said at last, "I promised I'd head down to the village and help my sister today. She's still working on closing the shop so she can move in with us."

"Yeah! And I was planning on doing some tinkering today," Jay added.

Zane response was simply, "And I have...uhm...something...else to do?"

Zane's vague response and Jay and Kai slapping their own foreheads at it made Cole cock an eyebrow. But he soon shrugged it off.

Just over an hour later Cole was in the sky with his dragon. His ticket to see all of Ninjago. They swooped over mountain tops, glided over forests and made daring dives into canyons.

Cole enjoyed every minute of it, but a thought still ticked in the back of his mind. Zane's response as to why he couldn't fly with him today. Zane was normally good at giving a direct answer to a question. He wasn't cryptic like stereotypical stages, and he was never vague. Something just wasn't right.

His dragon seemed to sense his thoughts and suddenly stopped listening to Cole's directions. It made a U-turn and started flying at top speed.

"Woah! Where are you taking me?" Cole asked over the rushing wind.

He got his answer moments later when his dragon landed just outside the village. Cole got down and his dragon pushed him towards the blacksmith Kai and Nya came from.

Inside Nya was stacking up some old helmets. She looked like she'd been working for hours and was getting tired.

"Kai hasn't come yet it look like," Cole said casually.

"Hey Cole," Nya smiled, "I...wasn't aware he was coming."

Cole stared in disbelief, "He...said he'd promised to help you."

"Sorry, but he did no such thing," Nya told him.

"First Zane gives me a weird answer, and now Kai lied to me...were they all just making excuses? Why?" Cole simply couldn't believe it.

"I'm sure they had a good reason Cole," Nya assured him, "You and the others are a team, you always say so yourself. I'm sure things will straiten out in time."

Cole thought for a moment then nodded. Whatever was going on would be resolved and explained. The ninjas didn't keep secrets from each other...at least not for long.

"Thanks Nya. I guess I'll see you around," He said.

He turned and started to leave the shop.

"Cole wait a moment," Nya called after him.

Cole turned, "Yes?"

"I could use some extra muscle getting ready for the helmet sale. Need to get rid of as many as I can after all. Seeing how Kai isn't coming, you want to stick around and give me a hand?" Nya asked.

Cole smiled. Finally a chance to do something with a friend. He eagerly accepted.

Nya's job mostly consisted sorting so the customers could fond what they wanted easily. Kabuto Helmets went one place. Hache Gane, forehead protectors, another place. Mengu, face masks, in yet another. To make it even more of a challenge the armor pieces had subtypes. Mengu had be sorted by what it covered. There were also two types of Kabuto helmets. At least the Hache Gane's were easy.

By sundown the store was finally ready for the following day's sale.

Cole wipes sweat from his forehead.

"When I told the ninja's I was taking my dragon out for some exercise, I thought I meant the dragon was getting exercise, not me," he joked.

Nya laughed, "Speaking of which you'd better head back before the others start to worry. Thanks for your help today. It would have taken me forever to do all that myself."

"Sure thing. I'll tell the others you say hi," Cole replied mounting his dragon.

Minutes later he was back at the dojo.

"What took you so long?" Kai asked when he came in.

"I was helping Nya in the shop, like you told me you were planning to do today," Cole said hoping to speed up his receiving of answers.

"Oh yeah well...things kinda got hectic around here, and I needed to stay and help," Kai said.

"Cole blinked a few times, shocked that Kai was once again lying to his face, but he let the matter go...for now.


	2. Chapter 2: Cole's thoughts

The next day wasn't too different. Cole came to the dining hall for breakfast just in time to hear the other 3 planning to head to the village for something.

"What's going on at the village?" he asked.

"Oh…uh…well…I won tickets to an event in the city. Sorry, but I only won three," Jay replied.

Cole blinked a few times in disbelief, "You didn't tell me this!"

"Must have slipped my mind. I mean we've been training really hard lately, plus getting ready for Nya to move in. It'll be the first time having a girl here after all. And there's the other little things that pop up now and then, and my inventions take up…" Jay babbled.

"I get it. I get it!" Cole interrupted him.

I get that you don't want me around, he thought.

After training, Zane, Kai, and Jay flew off on their dragons. Cole was with the dragons too playing with his. The others didn't see him though.

"Good thinking with that lie Jay. I wasn't sure how we'd wiggle out of going without Cole this time," said Kai.

"Well I don't just make inventions you know," Jay bragged.

Zane stayed silent and deep in thought.

"What's up Zane? You sense something?" Kai asked.

"No I'm just thinking," Zane replied, "Do you think this is right? To lie to Cole?"

"They're just little white lies. It's fine Zane," Jay answered.

With that the three took off.

But it wasn't fine. Cole couldn't believe what he heard. He was right. For some reason the ninjas didn't want him around.

Cole sat back thinking. He knew the truth now. He just had to find out why.

The first thought that came to mind was he had done something to hurt their feelings. Had he let his competitive nature get the best of him again? He looked back on the last few days. AS far as her knew he hadn't. In fact he could name a few times where he actually let the others ahead of him in order to calm down his competitiveness.

One person would know for certain. He headed back inside the Dojo and headed for Sensei Wu's room.

"Sensei, can I ask you something…about myself?" Cole asked walking in.

Of course," Sensei replied, "What's on your mind?"

Cole paused trying to decide how to word his thoughts.

He finally said, "Well, I've been working hard not to be too competitive towards the others. And I was just wondering…have I been doing a good job at it?"

"You have been doing fine with that. You've taken great strides towards being part of the team from when we first met," Sensei Wu told him.

Cole nodded and bowed, "Thank you Sensei."

He left the room then.

Scratch that as a theory then, Cole thought, but then why do the others not want me around? We're a team…aren't we?

The thought struck Cole like equipment in the training area. Were they still a team? What if the others didn't want Cole on their side anymore?

Cole's heart sank. He went into his room and sat down on his sleeping pallet. He pondered his actions. He couldn't leave the dojo because he had to protect, and one day wield the scythe of earth. He could go back to his competitive ways, but that wouldn't do much good when danger struck and the ninjas needed to work together.

Cole continued to think until he heard the others get back. But he never got an answer.

For now I guess I just wait and bear it, Cole thought. He didn't like the idea. But for now it was all he could do.


	3. Chapter 3: How Far Will Trust Stretch?

The next day Cole woke up feeling sick. Like someone had filled his stomach with a large rock, than just left it to sit there.

He didn't want to face the others today. He didn't want to get lied to again. He didn't want to feel left out again. He just wanted to lay there and hide.

But Cole had never been one to hide from his problems, even when he wanted to. So he forced himself to get up and dressed. He walked down to find the others already eating breakfast.

"Hello, sleepy head. Thought we were going to miss you," Jay said.

"Sorry," Cole said sitting, but his thoughts were, as if you care.

Cole looked down at his rice and miso. It didn't look very appetizing today. His stomach still felt like it had a rock in it. Cole didn't even pick up his chopsticks.

"Not hungry?" Jay asked.

"Not really," Cole replied pushing the food away from him.

He rubbed his eyes and look up. He noticed the others staring at him.

"You don't look so good," Kai said in a concerned voice, "Do you feel okay?"

Cole shook his head.

"If you want you can go back to bed," Jay said kindly, "We'll explain to sensei why you can't make it to training. I'm sure he'll understand that you need your…"

"Rest won't help in this case," Zane said, "I sense this is an emotional problem, not a physical one. My advice, Cole, would be to come and train with us. Give the course everything you got to distract yourself a bit. Perhaps afterwards you can tell us what's wrong."

Cole thought for a moment then nodded. I bit of hard core training would help burn some of his stress.

An hour later, the four were on the training course. Cole did not hold back. Every hit and kick was in perfect form and strong enough the cause a real skeleton to fall apart. And each one seems to shrink the rock that had been placed in his stomach.

Cole was approached by Zane once training was over.

"How are you feeling?" Zane asked.

"A little bit better, thanks," Cole answered as Jay and Kai.

"Zane said the problem was emotional. Is there something you need help with?" Kai asked.

Cole looked at the three. How could he know this wasn't another lie of some sort?

"Why are you all suddenly acting so worried," he asked.

"Because there's something wrong with you. And you'd do the same for us," Jay said, "I've seen you do the same for us a lot of times, like the time…"

"The point is," Kai said cutting him off, "We're worried seeing you like this. We want to help."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's why you all have been lying to my face and avoiding doing anything with me," Cole said crossly.

He turned away from the others then and pushed the button to put away the training equipment.

"Your right, Cole," Kai said after a few minutes.

Cole turned to face his team again.

"We do owe you an explanation," Kai continued, "but…we can't tell you just yet. We'll tell you tomorrow at lunch."

"Why not tell me now?" Cole asked coldly.

"You'll see why when we tell you. I know now's not a good time to say this but…you're just going to have to trust us," said Jay.

"Give me one good reason why," Cole said.

"Because we're a team," Zane said, "You always say so yourself. And we wouldn't be doing what we're doing without a good reason."

Cole thought for a moment. He wanted them to be a team again. It was only one day. He could extend his trust that far at least.

But no farther. This was the others' last chance.


	4. Chapter 4: the answer

The next day, after training Jay approached Cole as the training equipment was put away.

"Come on a dragon ride with me?" he asked, "I want to talk."

Cole nodded and the two got on their dragons. The dragons took off into the sky.

"We can't go far. We don't want to miss lunch" Jay said.

The two simply circled the rice fields of the nearby village.

"What did you want to talk about?" Cole asked, hoping to finally get some answers.

"Listen Cole…I can't tell you why we were avoiding you without the others, but on behalf of all of us, I want to apologize. We didn't mean to hurt your feelings, and we hope today we can make it up to you." Jay said.

Cole could tell by Jay's tone that he meant it.

"So, you guys still want me on the team?" Cole asked.

"Of course we do," Jay replied, "You're our leader, and you're always there to remind us that we're a team. Plus you add a lot of muscle to our group…"

For once Cole didn't stop Jay's babbling. It felt good to be complimented like that after the past few days of feeling unwanted.

"Thanks Jay," Cole said once he finally finished.

Jay smiled, "Anyway we're all really sorry. After yesterday we realized how badly we handled the situation. I guess that's why we need a leader like you."

Cole laughed a bit, "Anyway lets head back, I'm so hungry I could eat a whole boar."

Jay nodded, "Lunch should be ready."

The two headed back and headed inside. Jay followed Cole into the dining room. Cole opened the door.

"SURPRISE!"

Cole jumped back startled at Kai, Nya, Zane, and Sensei's shouts. Then he stared in awe. The room was decorated in his favorite colors. On the table was yakitori and daifuku for dessert. Cole's favorite foods. There was also a pile of presents.

Cole stared in shock.

"Happy birthday, Cole!" Jay said finally breaking the silence.

"My birthday…man the days really do get lost up here. I completely forgot!" Cole said still amazed.

The others laughed. Time did seem to have a way of getting away from you when you were a ninja in training.

Cole stared at all the preparations and things started to click in his head, "This is why you 3 were avoiding me wasn't it?"

"Of course. We didn't want to ruin the surprise," Kai smiled.

"So…when you weren't dragon flying with me?" Cole asked.

"Making plans for this without you overhearing us," Zane explained.

"And going to the village?" Cole asked.

"Buying presents and supplies," Nya explained, "They also took a turn running the shop so I could get you a present too despite the helmet sale."

Cole continued to look around the room smiling.

"Okay," he finally said, "Enough taking it in. I'm starving!"

"Glad your appetite's back," said Zane serving up the skewered meat for everyone.

The yakitori and daifuku was cooked to perfection. Cole's presents were well thought out and fit his personality perfectly. There was also music and dancing including Sensei Wu dancing with his beard as he had done on their first adventure and making everyone laugh. Cole even stepped out of the spot light for a bit to let Jay and Nya have a slow dance together.

Cole felt completely better after the party. He knew he was still welcome with his friends. His team.

Footnote to Ninjagolover: Thanks for the idea. Gave me a great chance to learn more about ancient japan. BTW send some thanks to awyeah21 as well for helping me come up with a plot. :-)


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